Candy Corn Volcanos

Yesterday was a fun day in the lab. We truly stuck to our motto of ‘If you’re not making a mess, you’re not doing it right!’ One of the messier labs of the day was making a candy corn volcano with one of my self contained classes. Over the weekend I made several batches of playdough, and dyed them candy corn colors. Just a few more ingredients were needed for this lab: tin foil, vinegar, baking soda, a funnel, and a paper cup.

We decided to take the lab outside – it was a gorgeous day, and I didn’t feel like cleaning vinegar and baking soda off the lab tables and floor. To begin, I placed the funnel upside down on the ground and wrapped it in a few layers of tin foil to make the volcano shape. I then had the kids take turns adding the orange and yellow playdough to the outside to make it look like candy corn.

Once the playdough was in place, I removed the funnel. I poured an inch or two of baking soda into the paper cup, and placed it inside the base of the volcano. Time for fun! I had picked up a squeeze bottle at WalMart for about 87 cents the other day, and it was very useful for squirting the vinegar into the top of the volcano. The kids were thrilled. We had some amazing eruptions! I think we went through two bottles of vinegar and a box of baking soda because they were having so much fun.